Letter: Full funding of districts, plans that follow guidelines will ensure safety while reopening schools

Editor's note: This letter to South Carolina leaders was submitted by the Palmetto State Teachers Association.

The Palmetto State Teachers Association is highly concerned about the safety of students and staff in South Carolina given the current growth in the rate of spread of COVID-19 in our state. While our members desperately want to return to in-person instruction with students, our organization believes state and local leaders must prioritize the health and well-being of students and staff above all other policy goals while designing plans for reopening schools for the 2020-21 school year.

To that end, our organization has partnered with the SCEA and SC for Ed to send the attached letter to the following state leaders - Gov. Henry McMaster, Superintendent Molly Spearman, Speaker Jay Lucas, Sen. Harvey Peeler, Rep. Rita Allison and Sen. Greg Hembree. The letter asks for our state leaders to ensure that two conditions are met prior to the resumption of school operations in the fall.

First, we are asking the General Assembly to fully fund schools in order to equip them to ensure the resources and staffing necessary for safe and effective operations of schools. Regardless of the format and instructional model followed by districts this fall, districts will need additional resources to meet the unique challenges posed by the impact of COVID-19 on our state.

Second, we are asking state leaders to ensure that district reopening plans are consistent with the guidelines established by the AccelerateED task force. While we believe that reopening plans should remain under the control of local districts, we also believe the AccelerateED recommendations provide strong and appropriate guardrails for districts to follow to ensure that instructional models ensure safety for students and staff based on the local rate of spread of COVID-19 as determined by DHEC.

Palmetto State Teachers Association is the largest professional organization for educators with more than 15,000 members.

Dear Gov. McMaster,

On behalf of South Carolina's public school teachers and personnel, we would like to express our appreciation for recent actions taken by the General Assembly that align with the recommendations by Superintendent Spearman's AccelerateED task force. We believe the inclusion of educators on the task force fostered productive collaboration that produced guidelines for safely reopening schools.

While we support the task force recommendations, we have grave concerns about their implementation. It is our belief that the report does not address two essential areas: all recommendations must be fully and equitably funded, and the state of South Carolina's Department of Education must establish clear expectations and standards that apply to all districts. Without fully funded and clear standards, the reopening of schools will only reinforce the inequities present in South Carolina's public schools.

We ask that standards governing policies like classroom safety (PPE, cleaning materials, sanitizing classrooms) and medical leave (in the event of exposure) be uniformly drawn by the state and clearly communicated to districts to alleviate confusion among teachers whose classroom energies will be taxed like never before. We have already seen instances of proposed district reopening plans that are inconsistent with the DHEC and CDC-aligned recommendations adopted by AccelerateED.

Finally, as professionals, we recognize better than anyone the myriad challenges posed by the reopening of our schools and stand ready to meet them. We simply ask that the General Assembly commit to fully fund that which is required to keep everyone safe so that we might deliver an invigorating pedagogy in a stable environment. That is why we also ask that the state Department of Education establish clear and defined standards to be applied evenly across all school districts.

KATHY F. MANESS

Executive director

Palmetto State Teachers Association

LISA ELLIS

SC for Ed

SHERRY EAST

President

South Carolina Education Association